The Joy of Six: Sporting displays of love

With Valentine's Day approaching, Scott Murray recalls half a dozen romantic displays from the world of sport

Matthias Steiner of Germany holds a photo of his late wife Susann as he poses with his gold medal in the men's +105kg Group A weightlifting competition at the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games Photograph: Alvin Chan / Reuters/REUTERS

With the benefit of nearly 30 years' hindsight – hindsight which affords us a full panoramic view of Sebastian Coe grappling with William Hague on a judo mat in front of a roaring fire – everyone will tell you how much they loved Steve Ovett. That wasn't the case back in 1980, though: while Coe studiously positioned himself as the nation's golden boy, and would dance a merry jig at the merest trill from a journalist's whistle, Ovett's almost complete refusal to pander to the whims of the press pack saw him branded "Public Enemy Number One" by the tabloids. And so it seemed like the entire nation wanted Coe to beat his sorry bad-boy ass as the two best middle-distance runners in the world faced each other down that year's Moscow Olympics.

But Ovett didn't care either way about the image foisted on him by the press – or how popular or unpopular with the public he was perceived to be. Only one person's opinion meant anything to him, and he was going to make sure everyone knew it. And so, after each round of his triumphant 800m campaign, he wrote the letters I.L.U. in the air with his finger as he stared lovingly into the stands – a defiant you-and-me-versus-the-world gesture to his future wife Rachel. Which had the added benefit of confusing the hell out of his enemies in Fleet Street, who had no idea who he was communicating with, but now had the onerous task of finding out. A textbook example of killing two birds with one stone, as Ovett couldn't have responded better to his shoddy treatment had he stood in front of the press box flicking the Vs and grabbing his groin. Although doubtless Rachel wouldn't have been quite so impressed had he done that.

2) Greg Norman and Chris Evert

Greg Norman spent the best part of the late 1980s and early-to-mid 1990s wandering around of a Sunday afternoon wearing a grey, haunted, deathly look on his face: seven times he had led a major going into the final round, six times he had managed to bugger it up. But when you're in love, the world suddenly seems a less scary place. Norman had ended his 26-year marriage to his former wife Laura in September 2007, and within months had hitched up to tennis legend Chris Evert. He rocked up at the 2008 Open with "no expectations", a "good attitude" and a "fresh approach to life": cue rounds of 70, 70 and 72 as he led the field at Birkdale after three rounds.

It was not, of course, to be. As Norman found a greenside bunker with his second shot of the final round, everyone knew the jig was already up. No matter, though. Unlike capitulations past, Norman suffered this one with a laid-back, genuine smile. "I am disappointed but of course it does not rank as high as some of the other occasions when I didn't get home," he shrugged as he signed for a 77. "Chrissy has very much been a balance for me this week and it has been great to have her around. She was my backbone."

3) Alex Higgins

Alex Higgins was always a fighter, not a lover, but at the pinnacle of his achievement he was no less than all heart. Having just beaten Ray Reardon to the 1982 world final, rattling in a show-stopping break of 135 to secure the title, Higgins immediately dissolved in tears. He was handed the trophy and his £25,000 prize cheque, but they were soon discarded as he searched out his wife Lynn in the audience. "Bring me my baby," pleaded the new world champion, as Lynn gingerly stepped forward with their daughter Lauren. An embrace. Famously, uncontrollably, the most self-obsessed man in the history of All Sport had demanded to share his greatest triumph with the woman he loved: there are few romantic gestures greater than that.

Of course within 24 hours – after the mother, father and daughter of all celebration parties – Lynn had stormed off, taking Lauren to Portugal while Higgins was holed up in his house with another woman. But just for one moment back there, life had been beautiful.

4) Matthias Steiner

Matthias Steiner was competing for the men's +105kg weightlifting title at last year's Beijing Olympics, but at a serious disadvantage to the rest of the field. For he was already carrying the weight of the world on his shoulders, his wife Susann having been killed in a car crash the previous year. In his grief he had thrown himself into training, and the hard work paid off, dramatically so, as he clean and jerked a humongous 258 kilos to pip the Russian Evgeny Chigishev, who had looked home and hosed after setting a seemingly unassailable mark of 250kg.

Lost in the moment, he bounded around the stage on his haunches, screaming at the top of his voice and clawing at his shirt, almost as though he was fumbling to see if anything of his heart was still left there. Steiner eventually took to the podium in tears, gripping a picture of Susann in one hand, his medal in the other. Sport's most poignant love story of all had come to its bittersweet end.

5) Mrs Jomo Sono

Jomo Sono should be principally famous for playing alongside Pele at the New York Cosmos, managing South Africa to the final of the 1998 African Nations Cup and the 2002 World Cup finals, or owning and coaching the Jomo Cosmos, one of the top teams in South Africa. But he isn't. Instead, he is mostly remembered for leaving his own wedding halfway through the ceremony in order to help his Orlando Pirates team turn round a 2-0 deficit against Highlands North, Sono turning up at half time to score two and set up another two in a 4-2 Pirates win.

This story is, of course, apocryphal. But only just. Sono didn't walk out during his wedding vows: he had scheduled the ceremony to finish well before the match began so he could listen to the commentary on a car radio afterwards. With the Pirates trailing 2-0, his brand-new father-in-law found him in the car park with a face on, at which point all agreed it would be best for him to race to the ground and get his boots on. So how, exactly, is this romantic? Well, forget Jomo for a minute and consider the radiant Mrs Sono instead: to let him get away with this sort of carry on, she must have really been in love with him.

6) Florence Morphy

In the summer of 1882, Australia beat England at the Oval, prompting that mock obituary in the Sporting Times. The body of English cricket was "cremated and the ashes taken to Australia", ho ho. The England team soon followed them down under for the 1882/83 tour. The Honourable Ivo Bligh's side won that series, prompting a group of society ladies from Melbourne to present the victorious captain with a terracotta urn containing some charred remains (probably a pair of bails, but possibly a ball, a woman's veil, or a kitchen sink) as a joke. While the urn's status quickly grew into something much more serious, Bligh was so taken with the gag that he married one of the women, Florence Morphy, taking her back to England where she became the Countess of Darnley.

It's hard to credit it now, after all this time spent watching English and Australian men pinging cricket balls off each other's heads, but the Ashes is effectively the longest-lasting love story in the history of sport. It's a thin line ...